Kai Asakura benefitted from a lack of options in the flyweight division when he arrived in the UFC.
Asakura was submitted by Alexandre Pantoja when being given the opportunity to challenge for the 125-pound title in his Octagon debut.
The fact he was thrown right in at the top of the division made him staying at flyweight a logical step, though Asakura was submitted by Tim Elliott last August in his second UFC outing.
After suffering back-to-back losses for the first time in his career, the Japanese star is now looking to start fresh by making a significant change.
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Kai Asakura moves back to bantamweight to face Cameron Smotherman at UFC Macau
The UFC recently announced that Kai Asakura will return to face Cameron Smotherman on the UFC Macau card on May 30.
For the Japanese star, this means moving up a weight class to compete in the bantamweight division after things didn’t work out for him at flyweight.
While the 32-year-old has competed in both weight classes in the past, he spent the vast majority of his time in Rizin competing at bantamweight before he signed to the UFC.
He won the promotion’s 135-pound belt in his final fight before arriving in the Octagon and previously fought current UFC stars Kyoji Horiguchi and Manel Kape for it.
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The likes of Max Holloway questioned why Asakura was matched with Tim Elliott last time out, who is known for his grappling and was able to use this to shut down the exciting striker.
Matching him with Smotherman shows that the promotion has decided to pump the brakes slightly rather than giving Asakura another tough stylistic matchup.
Not only is the American also coming off consecutive losses, in his three UFC outings, he’s attempted a total of zero takedowns.
UFC Macau is set to be headlined by another bantamweight clash between Deiveson Figueiredo and Song Yadong.